


The Pit

by bar2d2s



Category: The Flash (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 05:02:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3923902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bar2d2s/pseuds/bar2d2s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blackest Night: The Flash was very distressing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Into the Pit

**Author's Note:**

> Canon-based, post Blackest Night Axel angst.

They’re home again, and Axel is numb. Physically numb, emotionally numb, just…numb. He can’t wait to crawl into his bed but once he does, the images won’t stop.

James Jesse is chasing him in midair, wielding a super soaker filled with a black liquid that ate at his clothes and burned his flesh. Len’s sister, the one he never talks about, is almost successful in taking off his head. That crazy Top guy is trying to, trying to  _bite_  him.

He’s almost off to sleep, when he remembers Owen.

Owen’s dead.

The thought is enough to jolt him awake again, clutching his arms to his chest, trying to protect his heart. 

Owen was feeding people to his dead father. Villains. Not villains. Women.  _Kids_. He was insane. So Len…put him down. Permanently. Owen’s old man ripped out his heart, and then Owen was coming back.

So Len froze them both.

Axel felt his fingernails ripping tiny holes in his shirt, so he relaxed his grip. It wasn’t the fact that Owen was feeding his dad when he should have been fighting him that got him so scared. It was, it was Len. Seeing him just… _shove_  him into the pit like that. So callous. So… _cold_. Like Owen was nothing. Like he’d do that to anyone he caught breaking his rules.

Axel shivered, pulling his blanket up over his head.

The original Trickster was dead. A dead traitor. Axel was the Trickster now. He followed Cold’s rules.

He wasn’t going to end up in the pit, except in his dreams.


	2. Never Stop Screaming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the one where Axel angsts because he and Owen had been an item.

Axel isn’t sure how he got back to the base.

He remembers fighting the Black Lanterns, he remembers finding Owen with his father, he remembers falling. Falling down, down, ripping, screaming. He-

His face hurts.

He’s in the bathroom, staring into the mirror. His face hurts because there’s a shiner blooming on it. His jaw is bruised. It looks like he got in a fight with a brick wall. Oh. He did. He punched Len.

He punched Len, because.

Because Len shoved Owen into the pit.

Axel screams. Loud, piercing. Someone bangs on the bathroom door, but he’s still screaming. Clutching at his arms, at his chest. And then someone comes through the mirror, holding a hand over his still-screaming mouth.

“Weesht, lad. Yer on eggshells with him as it is.”

Evan doesn’t tell him that Len is dead drunk on the couch. Doesn’t need to. He sees the lingering reflection in Evan’s eyes.

After Len had pushed Owen, had watched as his father killed him, then brought him back, had frozen him, Axel had rushed at him. He was a blur of arms and legs and teeth, but Len took him down like he was nothing. 

Evan’s hand is still over Axel’s mouth when the tears come, hot and thick from beneath his mask. The older man scowls, pushed him away. Axel isn’t screaming anymore. “Clean yerself up. Yeh got a room, now. Go lay in it for a few days.”

Numbly, Axel moves his stuff from the end of the hall and into Owen’s old room. The one he spent so much time in after he came back. Owen’s spare jacket is still laying draped over the room’s only chair. One of his boots peeks out from under the bed. There’s a stack of records just waiting to be put away, that Owen had gotten on their last outing to the pawn shop on the corner. They’ll be waiting a long time.

Axel isn’t screaming anymore, except he’ll always be screaming, because Owen is gone.


	3. Not the Brightest Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the non-canon based one where Axel was totally in love with Owen, but never told him.

“So, does this mean I get my own room?”

He’d said it casually as they walked away, as if his heart wasn’t shattered in his chest. Len grunted, but he didn’t say  _no_. So later, after they set Mark’s arm and barricaded the entrances the best they could,  Axel moved his things to Owen’s old room. 

He shut the door, breathed deep the smell of wood polish and metal cleaner mixed with the Old Spice aftershave Owen used that still lingered, then fell face-first into his pillows and sobbed. He cried until his throat was dry, until his stomach felt like it was going to come up through his mouth and punch him. He cried until his eyes hurt and when he pulled away, Axel saw that he’d bled on the pillowcase. 

He was crying blood, a fitting tribute to the end of the life of the man he…no. Better not think about that now.

Axel and Owen hadn’t gotten along at first, but then Axel watched him fight. The way he whipped a boomerang was…amazing. Like it was just an extension of his arm, going away and coming back. He had such an anger to him. It was a trait Axel respected. Something he found sexy, in that weird, forbidden way that he could never talk to anyone about. And then Owen went away for a little while. Went to be a hero. Started hanging out with Supergirl and the Outsiders.

But he came back, because the Rogues are family.

It always made him itch when he thought about that, really thought about it. If the Rogues were family, then Axel was in love with his brother. Oh well, it was less weird than the little jolts he got up his spine the couple of times Len called him son.

Axel fell asleep that way, wrapped around Owen’s pillow, and when he finally woke up again, Captain Boomerang was back. He heard Len talking about it, through the door. He jumped to his feet, embarrassed. Had he fallen asleep in Owen’s room? Were the last couple of days just this big, fucked-up dream?

“Digger says he doesn’t remember his time as a Black Lantern. I’m gonna believe him.”

They all looked up at the thud. Axel had stumbled over his own feet, falling against the back of the couch. He was a mess, with dried trails of red on his blotchy face, and Mark clicked his tongue.

“Good, you’re alive. Get dressed, we’re going out in a bit to give the Flash a proper welcome back.”

He nodded, walking into the bathroom. Mark and Evan weren’t particularly quiet about their protests.

“He can’t go out, not now. Not like that.”

“Lad’s a mite broken, Cold. He and Owen, they were friends. Sort of.” Len’s tone is even more unforgiving, if possible, than it had been the other day.

“Then he should have told Owen not to do what he did. We’re all going.”

“Yeah, what he said!” His mask was back in place. Both masks, the one on his face, and the one on the inside. “Owen fucked up. He’s out. I’m not gonna fuck up, so I’m still in. I miss anything?” Len shrugged, and Axel took it as a sign that he should go grab his stuff.

As he stuffed his tricks into his bag, Axel spotted something on the ground that made his heart stutter in his chest. Whipping his belt off, he threaded the scarf through his belt loops, tying it securely at his waist. Just something to keep Owen close.

“Axel!”

“Yeah, coming!”

It was a new day. Not a particularly brighter day, but a new one. And that was the best he was going to get right now.


End file.
